[The assessment of exposure to the risk of the manual lifting of patients and the results of clinical studies in the hospitals of Bolzano and Bressanone].

A study was made in two hospitals in the province of Bolzano in order to ascertain the possible relationship between risk due to manual lifting of patients and occurrence of back disorders in healthcare workers. Risk analysis was carried out in 16 wards, with 207 workers assessed by means of clinical/anamnestic check-up of the spine. In the majority of the wards analysed the index of exposure to patient lifting was average or high due mainly to the lack of equipment, unsatisfactory structures and furnishings, and organizational factors. This was particularly evident in the Bressanone hospital where there were fewer workers to each department. As regards the clinical assessment of the spine, from the overall analysis of the results it was seen that in the hospital in Bressanone the prevalence of degenerative disorders of the lumbosacral region of the spine was 3.9% and in the Bolzano hospital it was 5.7%. Similar differences were observed in the prevalences of episodes of acute low back pain reported in the previous 12 months: Bressanone 7.7%, Bolzano 3.8%. In both hospitals 3rd grade SAP was diagnosed in about 5% of the subjects examined and globally clinical/functional alterations of the lumbar spine were observed in 20% of the Bressanone workers and in 27.2% of the Bolzano workers. Management of the cases judged unfit for manual lifting of patients was particularly difficult because of the high percentage of such cases (8-9%). On the basis of these results, the administrations of both hospitals undertook a series of short-, medium- and long-term interventions in order to reduce the risk for the spine.